Mannequin
by a sea of sound
Summary: Having your best friend be of the opposite sex was a difficult and risky business. Rosa knew this all too well. [Undergoing rewrite 7/22/13]
1. Prologue

_Prologue to Mannequin_

* * *

When Rosa had heard that Hugh and his sister had been attacked by Team Plasma and that they stole her, that is, Hugh's sister's, Purrloin, the one which their late grandfather caught especially for her, Rosa had been lathering in her own filth. Some may call it taking a bath, but the only thing you're taking from a bath is, well, your chance to become thoroughly clean.

Rosa was not someone who believed in things such as baths, but she figured it would give her more of the experience of being a Water-type Pokémon, like her mother's Alomomola. So to fulfill her wishes, she sunk herself into the one-foot depths of the water, making sure to squeeze her mouth and eyes tightly shut. Everything sounded so filtered down there, like she were living in a bubble.

At the precise moment Rosa sunk into her bath, her mother burst into the bathroom, fear written all over her face as if she were a horror novel. A woman such as Laurie kept very attentive tabs on her children, so she made sure the locks on the doors could be easily opened without extra effort (at least until they reached the age of twelve). However, this was not to her children's delight, but to their dismay.

Laurie seized her daughter by the shoulders and took her under the arms, hastily rubbing her down with a towel. Rosa sputtered and protested, with yells that she was nine already and didn't need help. Laurie was deaf to her complaints, taking both ends of the towel and rubbing Rosa's head with the taut part of it.

"Mommy, what are you doing? I can do this myself!" Rosa cried, grabbing her bathrobe from the toilet to save her dignity and privacy. Laurie was unrelenting in her task, her thoughts erratic. "Mommy!" Rosa's whining continued as her mother carried her to her bedroom and laid out her clothes. "_Mommy! _What's going on?!"

Laurie halted her actions, her lips forming a taut line. "Hugh's in the hospital."

Rosa felt both her stomach and her jaw drop, trying to process her mother's words as though the answer would float through her mouth and into her brain where she'd finally reach understanding.

"B-but, why?" she asked, her blue eyes wide and concerned.

"He was hurt. We have to go visit him, Rosa. Your brother's already there. He was with Hugh's parents," Laurie said, haphazardly fixing Rosa's hair into her usual style. Her hairbuns looked more like an Audino's stethoscopes, and it hung limply with the weight of its own wetness.

Just then Laurie's Xtransciever rang, and she instructed her daughter to get in the car. Rosa buckled herself into the backseat of her mother's sedan, and twiddled with her loose hairs nervously. After a couple of minutes Laurie jumped into the driver's seat, her expression only infinitesimally calmer. Rosa remained quiet and solemn throughout the whole car ride, which perplexed her mother as she thought Rosa would have bombarded her with a myriad of questions. But no, Rosa simply stared out the window and watched the various buildings of Aspertia City pass her by.

Once they arrived at the hospital, Laurie and her daughter met with Hugh's parents, who were in the waiting room. Rosa sat down in one of those multicolored chairs for children, feeling especially childish as she couldn't understand a word her mother and Hugh's parents were saying. She barely noticed the absence of her brother.

"Rosa, come here." Her mother beckoned toward her, and Rosa followed feeling as though she had a tail between her legs. "Do you want to go in and see Hugh?"

Rosa looked up and nodded, and Hugh's mother smiled and lead her to his room. She had never been in a hospital before, with the obvious exception when she and her brother were born. Everything was white and people said really long words in hushed voices, and the only thing that could be heard other than that was the constant hum of machines. Rosa decided she didn't like hospitals.

"Go on, sweetheart. I need to go talk to your mother about some things, okay? He and your brother are right in there." With that she left Rosa in front of the door to go back to the waiting room. Rosa hastily reached for the door handle and ran inside.

What she found was not Hugh unconscious in a coma and her brother talking to him as if he weren't. What she found was quite the opposite of that.

Hugh sat on his hospital bed, eating green jello out of a small plastic cup. (Green jello? Who even likes that stuff, anyway?) Nate sat beside him, listening as Hugh spoke and spat his food every so often. Other than a bandage wrapped around his neck and the fact that a nurse was checking his blood pressure and examining his heartbeat, he looked completely fine. Rosa stomped over to him, tears clouding her vision. Before either of them could say anything, she slapped his jello out of his hands and huffed angrily at him.

"I thought you died!" she shrieked, pulling at her messy ponytails. For once, Nate was speechless. Rosa was not someone who let anger get the best of her; they left that job to Hugh. And he was not one to disappoint.

"Yeah, but Team Plasma stole my sister's Purrloin!" he yelled right back. The nurse in the room stood back with a confused expression, not quite knowing how to deal with two children screaming at each other, practically itching to go at each other's throats.

"What the heck is Team Plasma? I thought you were _really hurt_!"

"Well, I'm not, so stop yelling at me! We need to find a way to stop Team Plasma and get Purrloin back! And I was eating that!"

Rosa yelled in frustration, kicking the discarded jello cup across the room. It skidded to be relegated under the table by the window, leaving a messy green trail behind it. "Who even eats green jello, Hugh?"

"I do! And if you're not going to help me think of a plan to beat Team Plasma, you can get out!"

"Fine! I will!" Rosa hurried out of the room, choking back her sobs. Her nine-year-old mind couldn't comprehend why she was crying so much; Hugh was okay. But he just made her so—so _angry. _Was it so wrong to care about her best friend? Perhaps she had been at fault for not primarily asking if was feeling all right rather than just assuming that he was just because she was caught off-guard by the difference between the workings of her mind and what was really happening. But he had brushed off her concern like she were an annoying speck of dirt on his clothing.

Rosa stopped when her head collided with someone's stomach, and she felt her mother's familiar arms around her shaking form. "What's wrong, Rosa? Hugh's okay, isn't he?"

"I wanna go home! Hugh's stupid and mean and—" Rosa's words were interrupted by a wave of fresh sobs. Laurie sighed, allowing her daughter to wail on her shoulder, and shared a meaningful look with Hugh's mother.

Audrey sighed, brushing her palm against her sleeping daughter's head, knowing full-well that in the following years her son would continually hurt at least one of his best friends with the most powerful weapons: ignorance and oblivion.

* * *

**I decided that this will be my new project: it will be multichaptered, but brief. It follows the basic storyline of BW2, except it's pretty much just Rosa complaining about how Hugh doesn't think of anybody but Team Plasma. Fun, right? 'Twas supposed to be a oneshot, but I think it'll do better multi.**

**I don't really like this prologue; the whole jello thing is from _How I Met Your Mother_ when Ted got into a car crash and everyone rushes to the hospital thinking he was really hurt but when they get there he's just casually eating a cup of jello, which promptly gets smacked out of his hand. Heh. I love that show to bits.**

**On another non-Pokémon related sidenote, how _beautiful _is Evan Peters?**


	2. The Queen of Figuring Out

Rosa hummed contentedly to herself as she prepared herself for the day, thoroughly scrubbing the previous day's dirtiness away with a shower. Showers were clean and to the point. Rosa would always choose them over baths, as baths served no purpose.

Wrapping her hair and body in two separate towels, she unlocked the door (yes, locked; apparently their mother followed through) and made her way to her bedroom, where her new clothes awaited her on her bed. She could hear Nate rummaging through the various and assorted crap he kept underneath his bed, most likely looking for the bag their mother had bought him for their impending journeys.

Yes, today was the day Rosa and Nate would finally receive their first Pokémon and officially become Trainers. It had also been five years since that day at the hospital, a day Rosa would rather not acknowledge. She was ashamed of her behavior, but she still couldn't forgive Hugh for changing so drastically and quickly into a whole other person, because surely the boy she'd known the day before he'd been attacked was not revenge- and Team Plasma-obsessed. Five years and Rosa still couldn't adjust; Nate had adapted to this new Hugh rather quickly, but why couldn't she?

Of course, Rosa figured this out all on her own during those five years. With the assistance of bad romance movies from PokéStar Studios and the more _savvy_ girls at school, she reluctantly accepted the fact that she liked Hugh as, well, more than a best friend. It took at least three years of denial, nearly one-hundred dollars spent watching the bad movies at the theater, several failed ploys to get Hugh to notice her and stop talking about Team Plasma, and one of the girls at school's fingernails for Rosa to have the much-needed epiphany that she did indeed have feelings for her best friend. At first, she was shocked by the audacity of her feelings, to make her fall for the boy she constantly had the superlatives of petty fights and afflicted feelings with. Eventually she came to terms with those conflicted emotions.

Key word: eventually.

Rosa had, on occasion, searched for other boys to become infatuated with instead, but soon enough she only found that when searching for that other boy, he would always have something in common with Hugh. Unfortunately for Rosa, she found the boy to be unlikable because what she had previously perceived to be a quality of Hugh's was actually not the case, and that more often than not she found herself wondering why she even gave the other boys the time of day. Sure, during the time she'd gone through puberty she had had several boys approach her, as she was a rather good-looking girl. Despite the boys being quite different and distinctive from each other, Rosa pinpointed the one thing they all had in common: they were not Hugh, nor would they ever be. Some lacked Hugh's strength, some lacked his passion and vigor, all of them lacked the explosive blue hair and fierce red eyes. Through this then-on-going process she finally learned that there really could be no proxy to fulfill her feelings for Hugh, and that things like that were not as capricious and subjective as she'd previously believed and hoped them to be.

"Rosa!" Nate knocked on her door, his irritatingly loud voice permeating her peaceful silence.

"What?" she asked, throwing her spare clothes into her bag. It was odd in that it did not appear to have much mass, but it was able to fit all of her belongings.

"I'm going now! C'mon!" Rosa listened to his rapid footsteps as he ran outside.

Gathering her bearings, she stepped out of her room and into the kitchen, where her mother currently sat and sorted through paperwork.

"Hey, Mom," she sighed, slumping down into a dining chair.

Laurie glanced up at her daughter. "What's wrong, Rosa? You're getting your Pokémon today. You should be excited!" she chided.

"I don't know, Mom. What am I even setting out on this journey for?" Rosa asked, throwing her hands up in an exasperated motion.

"I thought you wanted to help Hugh find Purrloin."

"Well, I did, but Hugh's got Nate, hasn't he? What's he need me for? I don't think I even want to be a Trainer anymore."

Her mother looked away from her paperwork, her expression stern as she frowned at her daughter. "Don't say that, Rosa. He's your best friend, and I'm sure he needs your support along with Nate's."

Rosa sat up straight in her chair and leaned forward, fisting her hands as she rested her forearms on the wooden table. A surge of indignation shot itself into her. "So we're just journeying for the sake of that Purrloin? For _Hugh_? That's real selfless of us, isn't it, Ma. Then what happens when—rather, _if—_we find Purrloin? We just come home like nothing's happened?"

"Rosa, if you keep thinking that you're only setting out on this journey because of Hugh, you're not going to learn a thing." Rosa huffed, sitting back in her chair. "Journeys are part of growing up. You figure out who you really are and what you want to do with your life; finding Purrloin is only a mere side quest, because that's Hugh's ambition and no one can really share the same exact goals as another person. Maybe you'll take on the League challenge. Perhaps you'll find that you enjoy Pokémon Musicals; plus, there's also PokéStar Studios! Maybe the scouts will find you interesting. Or, there's still the underlying chance that you're going to decide to go back to school and take up a more practical career, and you might even decide to become a nurse like me." Laurie sighed as her daughter resumed her pouting, and it reminded her of when she would complain about Hugh as a child; then again, she was _still_ complaining about Hugh, wasn't she? "Look, honey, I want you to actually get something out of this, all right? Otherwise, you'd have wasted your time, my time, and Professor Juniper's time, and you don't want that, do you?"

Rosa glared at her mother until she finally exhaled in defeat. _Of course; the one thing all mothers excel at flawlessly: the guilt trip._ "Fine, fine. I'll go on this stupid journey."

Laurie smiled brightly as she watched her daughter sulk out the front door. "You have a splendid time, all right? Love you, Rosa! Tell your brother 'I love you' for me, okay?"

Rosa walked laboriously out the door and onto the quiet sidewalks of Aspertia City with her back hunched and her head parallel to the ground. What she wouldn't give to crawl back into her comfortably made bed and lie there forever.

"Hey, Rosa! Took you long enough, didn't it?" Nate called as she finally walked up to him and Hugh, still facing the ground with her pale arms swinging beside her head.

Hugh bent down to her level, though she still couldn't see anything but the cement of the walkways. "Hey! Why so down? You're getting your first Pokémon, c'mon, Rosa!"

With that, both boys grabbed one of her arms and guided her to Aspertia's lookout point, where they would meet with what's-her-face-who-was-BFFs-with-Champion-Hilda, who would then give Nate and Rosa their first Pokémon. As they approached the stairs, Rosa suddenly stopped at the first step, refusing to go onwards. Nate and Hugh looked at each other knowingly.

"Doesn't your back hurt?" Nate asked, agitation filling his tone as he crossed his arms.

"I wanna go home," she moaned.

Hugh cringed as Nate got real close to Rosa's ear; nothing ever ended well for anyone who got too close to Nate. "THAT'S TOO BAD! C'mon, Hugh! We're carryin' her up there!"

Rosa's protests came out in the form of groans and unintelligible insults and profanities as both Hugh and Nate took her arms and threw them over their shoulders, as if she were some drunkard who needed help getting around. And so they trudged up the stairs, feeling distinctly like the most charitable people on the face of the planet for dragging her up those long stairs. Nate briefly wondered why this place didn't have elevators.

When they reached the actual lookout point, they dropped Rosa on the nearby park bench, where she continued with her zombielike groaning. The only other person there, a young fresh-faced woman with blond hair and spring-green eyes, turned around as they approached, her bright smile fading as she spotted Rosa.

"You guys must be here for your Pokémon! I'm Bianca, Professor Juniper's assistant! Um, is she all right?" she asked, looking around Hugh and Nate to stare at Rosa, who was now curled in the fetal position.

"I wanna go home!" she yelled into her knees.

Nate sighed dramatically. "Hugh, would you get that?" he said, pointing to his twin sister.

Hugh reluctantly nodded, walking over to where Rosa lay, and shook her shoulder viciously. "Rosa, let's just go and get your Pokémon! It'll take two seconds and we're out of here!"

"No. Go away." She swatted at his hand weakly, her face scrunched up in a scowl. Hugh scoffed, but before he could say anything, Rosa beat him to it by abruptly sitting up and glaring daggers at him. "What, 'Do I know what Team Plasma is doing at this very moment?' 'Cause I sure as hell don't care about that stupid villainous team or —" Rosa stopped when she noticed Hugh wasn't listening, but was rather in the process of taking her shoes off. She stared at him incredulously, wondering what kind of drugs he was on now.

Well, Hugh never actually _did_ drugs, but for a time he was under some anti-anxiety medication for his anger problem.

"What the _hell_ are you doing?" she asked flatly, tempted to kick his stupid (beautiful?) face.

"I know how much you care about these shoes, and those pink fuzzy socks, and your leggings—screw it, your whole damn wardrobe!—so either you get up, or I'm going to throw these down into the depths of Route 19 if you don't get up."

"You are pure evil, Hugh! Give me back my shoes, you asshole!" she cried as he ran toward the other end of the lookout point. Rosa debated whether or not she should go over there and save her shoes and risk getting her precious pink fuzzy socks dirty; she was feeling highly conflicted. Hugh dangled her powder-blue sneakers over the edge by their yellow shoelaces, and she knew what she had to do.

Throwing off her fuzzy socks and carefully placing them on the bench, she charged toward him barefooted, prepared to lunge at him if needed. Hugh couldn't contain his chuckles as she attempted to rescue her poor, poor shoes, continually reaching up and around him. After a while Rosa grew tired and had resorted to simply glowering up at him. She tried not to let her stupid hormones get the best of her and make her notice how _inexplicably attractive_ he was.

(It was not inexplicable in the sense that she, Rosa, was indeed physically attracted to Hugh; that could be explained in a simple phrase. It was however, inexplicable because of the funny crooked letter Y. Why? _Why did he have to be so beautiful and __oblivious to everything?_)

_What to do, what to do? Well, I could kick him in the balls if I wanted to, but that might cause him to drop my shoes. I suppose plan C it is. Wait. There was never a plan B, so how can there be a plan C? And what was plan A? Ugh, whatever. Time to put on that sex appeal that we be needin'._

Rosa pouted, getting too close to him for comfort as she situated her hands on either side of him on the railing. Hugh internally berated himself for forgetting that Rosa was very proud of the fact that she, the expert on romanticism she was, just knew how to appeal to basically any heterosexual male's libido. He tried fruitlessly to ignore the way her rather thick lower lip puckered out to him so invitingly, wondering in the back of his mind how she could do this so comfortably and effortlessly.

Although he never would admit it aloud, Hugh had thought of girls in _that way. _He was, after all, a young man at the ripe age of fifteen, and like any other adolescent teenage boy, he often had fantasies—whether intentionally or unintentionally—and dreams of being with a million different women. However, he simply refused to think of Rosa in _that way_. She was his best friend, and he had to look out for guys who looked at her or appeared to be thinking of her in that oh-so-forbidden manner. He felt obligated to defend her honor; or maybe he just had this instinct that came with being an older brother to a little sister. After all, Nate wasn't the best at looking after people, and Rosa wasn't exactly mature.

Oh, what a dynamic pair of best friends he had.

As expected, Rosa successfully conned him into giving her her sneakers back with that triumphant (flirtatious?!) grin of hers, which she promptly returned to their home of being worn by her feet. She simply trudged right up to Bianca and Nate and acted as though nothing had happened, despite the fact that Hugh's face still showed signs of an impending heatstroke/nosebleed. Professor Juniper's assistant regarded her with an expression that was a mixture of caution and awe; her brother sniggered quietly as Hugh silently and mechanically walked over to them.

A grin danced its way onto Rosa's face; it was the first time in five years that she got a rise out of him.

* * *

_Usually the queen of figuring out  
__Breaking down a man is no workout  
__But I have no clue  
__How to get through to you  
-Mannequin, Katy Perry_

* * *

**Ugh this just isn't my style. When I read this I feel like my writing is going down the crapper. Oh well. I'll continue on for the sake of continuity. It seems that multichaptered fics are not my forte.**


	3. Expired Warranty

**Let me warn you beforehand: this chapter is absolute trash. It gets really bad towards the end.**

* * *

Rosa carefully stepped out of Join Avenue with her hand shielding her eyes. She still had not yet recovered from the bright fluorescent ceiling and the fact that she was now a manager of her own avenue. Quickly ducking and making her way to a domed building, she braced herself for any random businessmen coming to ambush her and forcing her to take over their companies. When she figured it was safe, she hastily made her way to the place at which she and Nate would rendezvous. He had incessantly hit her up on the Xtransceiver, going on and on about some cool thing in Nimbasa City. Rosa thought he couldn't have been more specific, but then again Nate was fascinated by everything, whether it be the way Hugh's hair managed to retain its volume under the extremest of conditions or the "glorious" scent of food from Audino's. He was always just that easily impressed.

His twin sister stopped in front of the building he'd described for her ("big…tall…huge…"), a scowl present on her lovely face. _This better be good_, she thought, recalling the many times Nate had screamed for her to come and observe something with him, only to find that he was simply watching Oshawotts dancing underwater on his laptop, or Purrloins ringing doorbells. There was only one time she had had the same reaction as him, and that was a video of a Lilipup walking on its hind legs then dragging its rear on the floor. For some odd reason, she found that to be hilarious, and Nate had looked at her skeptically and said that it wasn't _that_ funny. Rosa had abruptly halted her loud guffaws, narrowing her blue eyes at him and huffing out the door of his bedroom.

"Rosa! Over here!" Nate called from the top of the stairs, a familiar wide grin plastered on his face.

She sighed, trudging up the stairs to meet him. "Nate, don't tell me this is going to be like those dumb videos you'd show me on the Internet that have no humor or interest whatsoever—"

"No! no! no! This is completely different! This is the real deal, Ro. It's amazing in here! I could live here but you know, since Mom loves me so much she'd never let me." He sucked in his lips and shrugged, causing Rosa to give him a look that meant _bitch, please_. "But anyway, you have got to try their Subway Supreme Sandwich. It's got all your favorite foods on it! Peppers, cheese, marinara sauce, peanut butter, Nutella, pepperoni. You're gonna love it!"

_I don't even like any of those foods, _Rosa thought as her brother dragged her down. She was always a picky eater. But she was having a severe case of the munchies after being ambushed by creepy men (she didn't mean to name any names, but—Colress) and battle-hungry, borderline sadistic Breeders, so she followed him without protest.

The stairs opened up into a circular room with various trains parked in varying directions. Nate dragged her to a corner that would only be noticed by anyone who knew it was there beforehand, following a sketchy neon sign that read "food" in red lettering. Underneath that someone had written "thirsty bitches". Nate sure knew how to pick his restaurants.

A blurry glass door opened to show a pristine diner-like eating area, complete with tiled linoleum floors and red jukeboxes on the dinner tables, thirsty for anyone who had spare change. Rosa was surprised by how neat and clean everything was, and how much irony she had just experienced in the past couple of minutes. Nate dragged her over to a booth in the back of the room. Taped to the silver table was a piece of printer paper that said, in very sloppy red writing, "Nate's table".

"Wow, Nate. You even have your own table already," Rosa said, mildly impressed.

Her brother grinned at her. "Yup! Isn't it great?"

She looked at him dubiously. "Exactly how long have you been here?"

"I don't know, two hours? Who cares! Let's eat!"

A young man walked up to them in a rather embarrassing striped uniform. "Hello! I'm Will and I'll be your server today." He stopped when his eyes met Nate's, though after lingering on Rosa long enough to be noticeable. "Weren't you just here like fifteen minutes ago?"

"No, that must've been the other guy with the visor." Nate looked at Rosa and rolled his eyes. "Must be new," he whispered.

"You mean that guy?" Will pointed to a middle-aged man wearing the same exact red visor as Nate, whose eyes bugged out of their sockets.

"That old geezer's jacking my style!" he cried, his hands flying to his visor.

"All righty then...Our special today is chicken noodle soup..."

"Ooh, this guy's cute though, isn't he, Ro?" Nate giggled girlishly and looked at Will out of his periphery, causing Rosa to bury her face in her hands.

"I'm sorry about my brother. He's a bit…unique." Her voice was muffled through her hands.

"Well, uh, baby, _I was born this way_. Sorry not sorry I hogged the perfect genes in the womb." Nate flicked his hand at her in a flamboyant manner.

"Eh hehe…." Their server laughed awkwardly, scratching his head with his pen. "Do you know what you're ordering?"

"Well, I'll have the Subway Supreme Sandwich and a large glass of chocolate MooMoo Milk. And what'll you have, sister dearest?"

"Um, just give me a grilled cheese and a cola, thanks."

"All right," Will replied sheepishly, taking their menus.

"Is it just me or does this guy have the hots for my sister?" Nate said rather loudly. Rosa kicked him under the table.

"Are you stupid? He can hear you!" she hissed.

"Hey! It's a free region. Ooh! Why don't we play a song?" Nate flicked through the song selections rapidly, his smile remaining unperturbed by the stares he got. "They've got 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go', 'Never Gonna Give You Up'—ooh! 'YMCA'!"

"No, Nate. I just wanna eat!" she yelled exasperatedly, lying her head down and making her trademark zombie sounds. The other patrons in the restaurant continued to stare at the two, mumbling about disturbing the peace. Nate giddily pulled out two nickels and placed them in the coin slot, selecting his song. "YMCA" began to blast through the diner as the other customers rose from their chairs to dance.

After a minute of YMCA-filled silence, Nate piped, "So! What kind you Pokémon have you caught?"

"Uh, well, Snivy evolved back in Virbank so he's a Servine now. Got a Riolu back in Floccesy Ranch and he's now a Lucario. Oh yeah, I caught an Eevee in Castelia Gardens. I think he'll be a Jolteon, and I just caught a Sandile in the desert. You?" she said, pulling every individual Poké Ball out of her bag.

Nate straightened out his back and folded his hands in front of him. "For starters—ha! get it? starters?—Ollie evolved into a Dewott and Cottie, my Cottonee, also evolved with this random Sun Stone I found! Magneto is a Magneton now, too. We dominate here at the Subway; I'm a very respected customer here!"

Will gave Nate a funny look as he set down their food, and Rosa couldn't keep from giggling. She bit her lip when Will turned to look at her, unintentionally "doing her thing". His face acquired a pink hue and Rosa's eyebrow quirked. If Hugh were here, in Nimbasa City, this might work.

"Hey, Will, when do you get off work?" she asked, making sure to keep her smile subtle and composed. This was basically her whole technique: to be subtle and calm, because guys just _love_ mystery. (Or so she believed. It _had _worked with other guys, just not Hugh, because there was nothing about Rosa that was mysterious to him.)

"Uh well, I get off in two hours." He rubbed his neck nervously. Meanwhile on the other side of the table, Nate smirked knowingly; after all, Rosa _was _his twin sister. He always knew what she was thinking, whether she liked it or not. It's either that or she was just predictable.

"OK! I'm Rosa, by the way." She grinned as he walked away, nearly tripping over a stray Poké Ball. "Sucker."

"You are one bad bitch," Nate said emphatically, a mischievous smirk on his face.

Rosa laughed, holding her pinky out. "From one bad bitch to another."

"Ah, at times like these, I am sure that we're twins. Poor guy, though."

Nate hooked his little finger around hers before digging into his sandwich.

* * *

Rosa stared up at the expanse of the Rondez-View Ferris Wheel, a prominent frown on her face. Will was supposed to meet her there fifteen minutes ago and he still hadn't arrived. She grumbled to herself as she watched couples upon couples stepping onto the ride, looking all happy and lovey-dovey. Hugh came to mind as she sat down on a nearby bench by herself, wondering where he was or how he was doing. The last time she'd seen him was, come to think of it, at the Castelia Sewers, where they tracked down Team Plasma after their antics in Virbank City. He left before she had the chance to actually have a conversation with him, choosing instead to go off ahead of her. Rosa had been highly irritated by that, despite the fact that she wasn't surprised. Hugh had a one-track mind, and until this whole thing with Team Plasma was over, she'd have to live with that.

"Uh, hi, Rosa. Are you all right? I'm sorry I'm a bit late."

Rosa looked up from her lap to see Will, finally out of that ridiculous uniform of his. He was rather attractive and was probably around her age but a bit older. His soft-looking blond hair swooped across his forehead and he had a great pair of brown eyes. Still no Hugh, though. Nothing explosively distinctive about Will, sadly, because he really was cute.

Rosa sighed and gnawed on her abused lip, standing up and smoothing her shorts. "Yeah I was just thinking. So what's up?" A smile plastered itself on her face, though it didn't reach her eyes. Will shrugged, throwing his hands into his pockets. _All right then_, Rosa thought, scratching her temple at the awkwardness. "Are you from around here?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Born and raised in Nimbasa. Do you know the gym leader around here? Elesa?"

"The supermodel? Yeah, I was going to challenge her, actually."

"Oh, Elesa's my cousin, which is how I got a job at the Subway." Will twiddled with his thumbs, and Rosa couldn't help but feel bad for using him. "You're a Trainer, then?"

"Reluctantly, but yes, I am a Trainer," Rosa chuckled shortly, looking around in crowds to see if she could spot a familiar speck of blue hair.

"I never had the desire to become a Trainer, which is strange 'cause my whole family has some career that involves Pokémon. But why were you reluctant?"

Rosa thought of Hugh and the argument she'd had with her mother. "Oh, you know, I didn't have a reason to go out. My brother and my best friend both went, and I guess everyone else just expected me to follow them along. I just left because there's nothing to do in Aspertia City without the two of them, and because Professor Juniper asked me to complete the PokéDex. So, while I was out, I might as well have taken the League challenge because it's pretty much my only motivation to keep going. And I guess my best friend, too." Rosa hadn't meant to add that, but it came out before she could stop it. Her face grew red of its own accord and she quickly looked to the side.

"What's she like?"

"Who?"

Will raised his eyebrows. "Your best friend?"

"Oh," she said, her mouth forming an O. "She's a he."

He looked genuinely shocked. _Arceus, bless him_. "Oh."

"Why so surprised?" Rosa asked, getting slightly annoyed. "Guys and girls can be best friends, no problem. It's not something that's limited to gender." In spite of that, Rosa couldn't help but feel hypocritical about her statement. Problems did appear in friendships involving people of the opposite sex, because sooner or later someone's going to analyze the other's smile a little too much and realize how charming they look when they do so, or notice all of the dumb little habits they have and realize how much they love them. It hurts. It's painful. But it's all Rosa could ever think about when she thought of Hugh.

Will nervously toyed with his Xtransceiver, his face growing red with embarrassment. "I—sorry, I was just a bit surprised is all."

"You're lucky you're cute," she said nonchalantly, smiling simperingly at him. The blush that was making itself very comfortable on his face deepened.

Finally, they stopped at the end of the line for the Ferris wheel; Rosa rocked back and forth on her heels, folding her hands behind her back. She watched as a tearful, overweight man with a thick beard got on a cart with a very uncomfortable teenaged guy, making her let out a giggle.

"Hey, Rosa!"

Rosa frowned as she turned, though she was inwardly beaming. "Hugh?"

"Hey," he greeted, waving his hand lazily. His eyes subtly narrowed as he noticed Will standing behind Rosa. "Who's this?"

She had to press her hand to her face to hide the smile that threatened to break across her face. "Oh, this is Will. I met him at the Battle Subway. Will, this is my friend Hugh."

"It's nice to meet you." Will nodded tersely before turning around to face the Ferris wheel.

"When did you get here?" Rosa asked, pleased to find that Hugh was still staring daggers at the back of Will's head.

"Huh? Oh, I got here last night. The Gym was closed so I had to stay overnight." His voice held conspicuous chagrin as he crossed his arms.

"I see. Nate's at the Battle Subway. He'll probably be there for the rest of his life. He's even got his own table at the restaurant!" Hugh's eyebrows disappeared under his bangs in muted amazement.

"Uh, Rosa?" Will tapped her shoulder. "It's our turn."

"All right! Bye, Hugh. Good luck with your badge."

Rosa threw Hugh a winning smile over her shoulder before she boarded the cart with Will, who looked slightly disgruntled at having his date's attention deviated. Nevertheless, her eyes still followed the speckle of blue as the cart lifted into the air. She narrowed her eyes as the ground became smaller and smaller until she could no longer spot Hugh. A yell of frustration threatened to break free from her voice box. Will peeked at her from under his eyelashes in what Rosa figured was supposed to be some kind of flirtation technique.

"Unova's really beautiful, isn't it?" Will sighed with a wistful quality to his voice.

"It is. I thought I'd hate it out here, but it's really not bad. It's a nice break from the monotony of Aspertia, that's for sure."

"Tell me about Aspertia City. What's it like?"

Taking a deep breath, Rosa thought hard. What was Aspertia City? Well, it was nothing without her brother and Hugh. It could barely be considered a city, with its quiet streets and unhurried pace; the only source of interest lied in the Lookout Point, the starting area of Rosa, Nate, and Hugh's myriad tag games during their childhood. Despite its slowness and overall lackluster, it was home, and it was the one place Rosa didn't feel like a stranger.

"I mean, it's pretty small. It doesn't really have any redeeming qualities to it, except for its observation point. But it's home to me." Chewing on her lip once again, her thoughts drifted to Hugh as they so often did. "I guess you'd have to be from there to really appreciate it."

Will nodded, twiddling his fingers. "It's kind of the opposite with Nimbasa." He chuckled, running his hand through his hair. "I think you'd have to be from elsewhere to really take it in for what it's worth. This place gets very old once you've seen everything. I'm kind of hoping to get out of here, travel other regions and just be a freelancer, I guess." Nervousness crossed onto his features in the form of a flush. "Maybe I could visit you in Aspertia, too."

Rosa smiled awkwardly, scratching the inside of her forearm. "Uh, yeah. That'd be nice." _He's pretty forward. I don't think he actually meant to say that_, she thought, fixing her gaze outside as the ground got closer and closer. "Maybe you could give me a tour? After all, I just got here."

Will's face lit up as Rosa's guilt escalated. "Y-yeah What do you want to see first? There's the Big Stadium, the Small Stadium, Pokémon Musicals—right, I should show you to Elesa's Gym, or rather her new one to be exact."

"That'd be nice."

When the ride ended, Will first took her to see Elesa's gym, with all of the random flashes of photography. (Rosa had impertinently yelled, "Will! Won't you take me to see the lights?" to which he responded, "Uh, what?"). His date briefly pondered over the many basic bitches probably strutting around in there like they were hot stuff after he mentioned that it was a fashion show.

They had also ridden in the roller coaster of Elesa's old gym, though Rosa highly suspected that Will was someone who was extremely subject to motion sickness, a feat that which he promptly tried to hide. After he came back from the bathroom pale-faced and still appearing nauseous, she had asked him if he still wanted to go on. Apparently she still had some tact to spare, being the usually tactless person she was. Will put on a brave face, although he was quickly steering her out of the amusement park. Bummer.

On their way to the Big Stadium, Rosa pinpointed Hugh's volume-filled hair in a crowd outside that was watching something or other, holding a bunch of styrofoam fingers and flags with the words "Nimbasa Bouffalants" on them. She had the impulse to hurry toward him until she remembered that she was still with Will, and that her brother, of all people, was the one person all these people had gathered around to watch. Rap music could faintly be heard in the distance as she pushed through the crowd, pulling Will along with her. Rosa finally got to the front after shoving the same overweight man from the Ferris wheel out of her way, who, oddly enough, still looked tearful. The rap music's volume had increased once she got close enough, though she stopped in her tracks at the sight of Nate shaking what his mother gave him, along with Ollie, his Dewott, in front of all these people.

_"I'm a private dancer; a dancer for money!_

_I'll do what you want me to do_

_I'm a private dancer, a dancer for money,_

_And any old music will do!"_

For the record, Rosa was neither surprised nor embarrassed that this boy—this _man—_was her twin brother. Rather, she was quite in awe of his uncanny ability to twerk, something he always practiced in secret, though unbeknownst to his mother and his sister. Even the music wasn't that bad despite the fact that it was clearly about a stripper, or the politically correct term, exotic dancer. Nate caught sight of his sister in front of the crowd, a huge grin on his face. Hugh stood across the circle from her, staring in disbelief at the rhythmic manner in which Nate and Ollie could move. It was simply idiosyncratic.

Rosa had congratulated him on the 500 PokéYen he'd earned just from his dancing before being tugged away by Will at the sight of a suspicious Hugh. They stopped by shortly at the Small Stadium, which was exactly like the Big Stadium except smaller. Pokémon Musical Hall was their last stop, where they watched a Sinnoan musical about a young Bidoof who was trying to find his place in the world. Rosa had struggled to keep herself dry-eyed; it was a real tearjerker like that.

Will took her back to the Poké Center where she stayed, smiling down at the ground. Rosa was hit by a sudden revelation.

"You don't know..." she whispered.

He looked up. "Don't know what?"

Rosa gasped, taking a step back and covering her mouth with her hand. "You don't know you're beautiful!"

"I—what?" Confusion wrote itself all over his face as if he were a cult classic made at Pokéstar Studios.

_Bless his good soul, _she thought. "If only...if only you saw what I could see."

"Wait—what the hell are you talking about?"

She shook her head, waving her hands dismissively. "Nevermind. Goodnight, Will. You're insecure, though I don't know what for."

Rosa left him standing in front of the Poké Center completely dumbfounded and downright puzzled. All the way up to her room she shook her head in shame, and accidentally bumped into Hugh in the hallway.

"Rosa! You're alive!" he exclaimed, red eyes wide.

"Yeah, I know," she replied, her voice deadpan and flat.

"So he didn't rape you?"

"No. Unfortunately no." Another shake of her head. "Hugh, he..."

Suddenly his eyebrows knitted a sweater in between his eyes. "What did he do? If he hurt you, I'll threaten him and not do anything!"

Her lips pursed. "He doesn't know he's beautiful."

"I—what?" Hugh stopped. Confusion must get around, because it was on Hugh's face, too.

"Why doesn't anyone understand? I thought you of all people would!" she cried, tugging at her hair.

"What? Rosa what are you going on about?"

"Ugh! Whatever. Excuse your sexiness." She huffed and hurried past him to her room, where she drunkenly flopped down on her creaky bed, breaking its old legs in the process.

She later discovered that, perhaps, there was something odd about the food in the Battle Subway.

* * *

**I have no idea what I was on when writing this chapter. Why did I even make a One Direction reference. I hate One Direction.**

**In other news, the song Nate twerked to was Free by BASTILLE. The next chapter contains pretty much no humor at all; it's more serious, and more reminiscent of my actual writing style. To be honest it's a little angsty, too, which is my ****fault because everything I write turns into angst.**


	4. If the Past Is the Problem

It was done.

Rosa stood alone in the Giant Chasm, which did indeed live up to its name of being giant; the icicles dripped and created towering stalagmites that nearly reached the ceiling. She could already feel the atmosphere shifting and the temperature increasing by the smallest degree as Kyurem was nowhere to be found, not after what had ensued with Ghetsis. Her formerly unmoving gaze flitted to the area where the man's cane was relegated in the ground. Even still, it eerily exerted extreme power and something that felt a little bit like a mixture of vacuity and loneliness.

She heard quick footsteps and a male voice panting behind her and as reflex, Rosa spun on her heel and made a light hissing sound that was somewhat akin to a Liepard.

Purrloin...

Liepard…

Liepard…!

Hugh slowed to a walk as he approached the middle of the cave, his breath visible in the frigid air. For a transient moment it was silent, only the shining icicles and Hugh's low pants having the audacity to break the stillness. Rosa's arms crossed of their own accord; she bit her lip and waited for Hugh to say something intelligent, or something about Liepard.

"Rosa…Team Plasma's ship flew away…" A pause followed, resuming the unnerving calm. After much thought, he turned to her and asked, "Is it over?"

Rosa inwardly mulled over what N had said. _Without Father…Team Plasma is…_

What was Team Plasma? She looked to her friend, opening and closing her mouth like a fish, because she couldn't think of what to say. She couldn't help wishing Nate were here, and that he hadn't completely abandoned her for the Battle Subway once they met up at Nimbasa City. Taking off her visor and running her hand through her battle-mussed hair, her supposition was that yes, it was over. Ghetsis had finally lost his mind, but based on what she'd learned about N from the enigmatic man himself and his foster sisters, Ghetsis never truly had a mind to lose; sure, no one could deny that he was intelligent. However, with intelligence doesn't come a conscience or virtues.

Hugh continued to watch Rosa closely, still awaiting an answer. Her muted blue eyes were half-lidded as she stared off into the dark recesses of the chasm, her mind clearly elsewhere. She seemed to have aged in the last couple of months since leaving home. Hugh figured he could no longer protect her because she turned out to be stronger than him, but perhaps she was always that much stronger; he was just too blind to notice. It was to be expected that they all changed after their journeys were over, although it never really ends. Even Nate, who always talked about staying true to himself and never straying from his path to becoming the Champion, had stepped aside and decided to settle down at the Battle Subway, in lieu of relinquishing the League challenge for becoming a Subway Boss.

(Even if it was only because of his constant affairs with the Subway Supreme Sandwich.)

Rosa took a deep breath, and inexplicably let out a soft laugh that lacked mirth. "Yeah, I guess so."

In response Hugh nodded, and for a fleeting moment his hand brushed Liepard's Poké Ball. It was one of the most difficult things he ever had to do in his lifetime, staring into those hateful eyes. The experience was likened to coming home and being rejected by the people you'd counted on your whole life. However, Hugh's determination wouldn't allow him to believe his journey was all for naught. Of course Hugh had considered what that Shadow Triad member had said, that if Purrloin hadn't been encased in a Poké Ball it might've come back home. But no, sad Pokémon like Liepard and the others stolen by Team Plasma were all subject to the rule of humans, all because they were relegated to Poké Balls and taken out of their natural habitats. Poké Balls, he realized, were made for the selfish convenience of humans at the expense of Pokémon; they were made simply to manipulate the creatures to whatever human's will. Hugh figured he would let his Pokémon out of their balls as much as possible. If there was anything he'd learned on his adventure, it was that the world was not all sunshine and roses, and that humans were more crooked than he'd thought.

"How's Liepard?" Her voice was quiet, almost cautious, and held a subtle shakiness that only those who knew Rosa well could detect. Hugh was relieved to find that she had not changed entirely, that somewhere beneath all of their new experiences they were yet the same people, and he could still find some implication in the slightest of sighs and changes of tone.

"Well, I just gotta make sure I get it back to my sister. I can't take it out of the ball, though…" He sighed through his nose, remembering the idyllic time when his grandfather was still alive and could paint him and his sister scenic paintings of everything from Aspertia City to the Pokémon League. Hugh's gaze shifted to the imperial silver cane stuck in the ground, and suddenly he remembered what they were there for. "I mean, more importantly, you rescued Kyurem, Rosa. Guess this means I'll have to treat you with more respect, eh?" He felt a tiny smidgen better when the corners of her lips quirked up into a grin. "No more calling you Rosie, on behalf of helping me with Pu—err, Liepard."

"Yeah, well, y'know…That's what I learned."

"What?"

Rosa toyed with one of her long strands of hair, her expression unreadable under the shadow of her visor. "Hugh, I—ugh, I was selfish, all right? You know it's not easy for me to…own up to stuff like this. I didn't want to go on my journey because I thought _you_ were being selfish because all you ever talked about was Team Plasma, or—or Purrloin, and I didn't want to go out on some longass journey throughout the whole damn region just to help you in your lifelong quest to find that Purrloin and I just—AGH, fuck it!"—she threw her arms to the heavens in frustration, turning her back toward him; Hugh simply watched, utterly confounded and nonplussed about what she was proclaiming and the echoes that followed, confirming her confessions and practically launching them like rockets back at him—"I like you, okay? I have since forever and I really don't know what the hell I'm saying right now and I was pissed because you never fucking noticed when I tried to tell you in some stupid middle-schoolish way and—" She stopped consequently from lack of breath, quickly shielding her eyes in fear that he'd notice that she was _crying_. Arceus, Rosa absolutely loathed crying, especially in front of other people, ever since her breakdown at the hospital.

She felt as though she was nine again, except there was nowhere to run and no mother to encircle her in comforting arms. There was only she and Hugh in this not-so-silent chasm with its constant echoing of their precarious situation. He remained at a loss for words, and his head felt like it would burst at any second. Who could ever find the right words when your best friend suddenly confesses that they have feelings for you? Hugh was not the answer to this question but the reason why it was meant to be rhetorical, although Rosa both hoped he would be and expected that he wouldn't. Her back was still facing him as she held too much shame upon her face to show it. They were underwater in the stillest, most unperturbed ocean, the strain high and unreachable like the surface. Yet again Rosa wished her brother were there to cause at least the minutest of ripples to break the surface tension.

A nervous jolt passed through her as she heard Hugh gingerly step in her direction. His voice (that had changed so much over the course of their journeys that it took Rosa a couple of seconds to realize he was speaking to her) bravely permeated the awkwardness. "I, umm…"

Rosa bit her lip, steadily keeping her gaze on the ground. "You don't have to say anything if you don't want to, Hugh. It's fine. I—I get it. Sort of. Actually I don't get it, but yeah, it's OK if you don't return my feelings; just, well, know how much guts it took me to go on and spill my feelings out in the open—" she never believed in the expression "pour my heart out" because pouring was too formal; spilling constituted a mess and that's all it resulted in: a mess of tangled and unrequited emotions— "for _you_ to hear. Arceus, it just had to be in a place where I can't express as much hyperbole as I want to." She sighed. "Anyway, I'll be going to the Pokémon League at N's suggestion. I guess I'll, uh, see you 'round." Waving her hand dismissively she started toward the entrance, making sure to tread especially roughly on the spurned sentiments strewn haphazardly throughout the cavern. Hugh's eyes followed her but he didn't really see her.

After several moments of standing there doing nothing, Hugh impulsively took after her. He didn't know exactly what he was going to say or what he was going to do, but he knew she'd never forgive him if he didn't say anything at all, and he couldn't stand the thought of her hating him.

It happened once. Hugh wouldn't let it happen again.

(In actuality, Hugh had grown to hate the action of hating itself. Especially after what had happened with Liepard.)

As he arrived at the opening, relief washed over him as he spotted her making her way to the entrance cavern. Hugh shuffled down the nature-made steps, making sure not to waste any time. Time was the most precious thing under these parlous circumstances. He could make it there if he sprinted fast enough.

(The idea of using his Unfezant to fly him there hadn't occurred to him; he wanted to do this all on his own, wanted to chase after her himself.)

The icy trees were beginning to melt whilst Hugh continued to run. Rood and Ex-Team Plasma were still left standing in the ruins their ex-cohorts had left, rigid and desolate in the aftermath. Hugh hurried past them, his one-track mind characteristically set on catching up to Rosa. Yet again he took the second set of stairs two at a time, and he experienced another torrent of reassurance at the sight of Rosa's retreating back. Before she could react, Hugh clutched her forearm and held it tightly, though not tight enough to bruise.

He began the game. "Hi."

Hugh waited painstakingly for her reply, to see if she was willing to play. Her face betrayed none of her thoughts, because she'd already revealed them to him; this surprised him because neither of them was very good at hiding their decks at this game, however simple it was. Following very careful consideration, she said, "Hi."

It went a bit like this:

"'M sorry."

Hugh bowed his head.

"I love you. I know."

Rosa didn't hesitate this time.

"I can try."

He wanted to.

"What?"

She watched him with confusion.

"To be with you."

Hesitation was not present in his voice.

"I suppose."

She was cryptic, her gaze fixed on his jacket.

"What?"

His eyes met her smoldering ones.

"That I can try, too."

She had always wanted to.

"...I always hated this game."

He smiled sheepishly.

"I did too. Until now, I guess."

A blush creeped up her neck.

"So, uh, do you want me to hold your hand?"

He was awkward, rubbing his neck.

"Do _you_ want to hold my hand?"

A front of coolness took its place in the form of a coy smile, in spite of her anything-but-composed countenance.

And their fingers entwined.

"…Your hands are really bony."

"Yours are too big."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Rosa?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm not doing this because I feel bad for you. I just didn't want you to think that."

"Oh, well, in that case, thanks."

"…Is the game over?"

Rosa pulled him along as they made their way out of the Giant Chasm, deep in thought. If he wasn't doing this for her, then who was he doing it for? Himself? Rosa highly doubted that, although Hugh was never someone who didn't have reasons for his actions, despite his impulsiveness and recklessness. Maybe he was just being rash, and he would soon find that he didn't want to be with her after all. He said they would try, but how long would that last? Trying didn't constitute or guarantee anything. The arrangement had no guarantees, no promises, she knew, but she wished she could be certain of something; unfortunately her relationship with Hugh was anything but certain. Rosa had always both resented and loved that about him, that he had this uncanny ability to take her by surprise every time. Nothing was ever set in stone when it came to the both of them, whether it was Rosa's odd mood swings or Hugh's unpredictable reactions to everything and nothing.

She made no audible noise as the pair stepped out of the cave and onto Route 22. Hugh was homeward bound, as he hadn't any other place he needed to be, while Rosa should've been on the opposite end of the chasm. Letting go of his hand, she took a step forward, testing him. Rosa stood with her back stiffened and her right hand free and waiting; it was clear to Hugh that this was a test. It annoyed him a little that she felt the need to do so, but this had always been her method of being absolutely sure. So he stepped forward, releasing his Unfezant from the confines of its Poké Ball, and grasped her hand tightly.

"I want you to come with me," he said. He was sure of this, because regardless of any kind of confessions, he still would have wanted her to be there. It was because of her that he was able to recover Purrloin and take down Team Plasma, anyway. She was the hero; he was merely the sidekick with a cause. He would never be able to measure up to her strength. That was the reality he'd accept, and at the very least, he wouldn't have to go through the trouble of beating up any kind of boy who would hurt her. (Will briefly came to mind, though he was rather harmless.) Hugh wouldn't be that guy, not now, not ever, which is why he jumped into the chance of being with her. They'd be all right, he reasoned, because he cared about her and shuddered at the thought of his best friend, Rosa, doing unspeakable things with another man he didn't know. He hoped to Arceus that that was enough.

She nodded, and the way the sun hit her face in that moment made him think that she really was beautiful. "Of course."

And so, they started toward Aspertia City on the backs of an Unfezant and a Braviary. It was against all odds, with Hugh's obliviousness and her flighty disposition.

Rosa thought not of a future in which she and Hugh were not together.

Because, at the end of the day, when all is said and done, they did end up together.

* * *

**I think this is a huge difference between the previous chapter and this one... Chapter 2 was just terrible.**

**And so it's done. I think the one thing I really liked about this was that one line: "She was the hero; he was merely the sidekick with a cause." I think it explains their relationship perfectly, if I'm not being too forward.**


End file.
